Spartan Metals Begins Maiden Drilling as Washington Tightens Tungsten Supply Rules

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Spartan Metals is currently advancing its maiden drilling program in Nevada at a time when the United States government is significantly tightening regulations on tungsten supply through new executive orders. The recent presidential directive marks a pivotal shift from merely offering general preference for domestic sourcing to effectively forcing defense contractors and other entities to secure domestic sources for critical metals like tungsten. By restricting waivers that previously allowed imports from non-allied nations, the administration aims to reduce reliance on foreign suppliers, a move that positions Spartan Metals strategically as it works to fill a critical gap in the supply chain at the very beginning of this new regulatory era. The executive order specifically highlights tungsten as one of the most sought-after critical minerals due to its essential role in defense applications and its growing importance in high-tech and strategic technologies. While the government is attempting to implement robust traceability systems, potentially leveraging advanced blockchain-style technology developed through initiatives like Project Vault, industry experts remain cautious about the immediate momentum behind these efforts. Past attempts at establishing similar traceability frameworks, such as a previous investment in cobalt tracking, have faced challenges, leading to optimism that this new executive order will provide the necessary catalyst to finally get scalable supply chains and verification systems off the ground. Despite the increasing pressure to scale production quickly, Spartan Metals reports high confidence in its upcoming results following successful surface exploration and concurrent geophysical programs at their Eagle project. These preliminary studies have identified significant targets, suggesting that the drilling operation is poised to yield exciting findings that could further solidify domestic tungsten availability. The company views the heightened regulatory pressure not as a hindrance but as a driving force that keeps them moving forward, ensuring they remain at the forefront of meeting the urgent demand for critical minerals required by American defense and technology sectors.

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[music] >> Today I have the pleasure speaking with Brett Marsh from Spartan Metals. How are you today? >> I'm doing well, Tracy. Thanks. Thanks for having me. >> Well, I appreciate you taking time and stepping, you know, you're in the middle of a drilling program in Nevada and you've stepped off the field for a minute to talk to us about the most recent presidential order. >> Yeah, so it's it's something that I think we've really been waiting for within the industry and it's very topical for Spartan, I believe, because it really pushes these defense contractors to get domestic sources for their various critical metals and and tungsten being among the the chief of chief metal of interest. So, it's definitely something that we're keeping a very close eye on and and doing our best to engage with folks within Washington to make sure that they understand what Spartan has to offer. >> Well, this order came out what? The last week of July? I think Jack Lipton said, you know, it's basically a re-hashing of everything we already knew was in play, but it actually I thought was quite extraordinary because so much time had been put into reinforcing that it had it is now officially a top priority for the president's office. >> Yeah, for sure. I think, you know, the one thing that I think the new order did there at the end of July was it was it actually moved from what used to be just guidance and providing general preference for contractors to get domestic sources to really now almost forcing them to to develop domestic sources because a lot of the waivers are going to be taken away that they've been using up until this point to import from from non-allied sources. So, it's it's definitely a situation where I think the government still doesn't even understand uh, how far back that they need to go in the supply chain and I think that puts Spartan in a great position because we're at the very beginning of it. So, we cover a very critical gap that I see right now in the supply chain. >> Well, if you don't mind, let's just go through the, uh, executive order 14415 priorities starting with the critical minerals that they were prioritizing and of course your tungsten. Let's start with that. >> Yeah. Yeah, so we're, like I said, we're we're positioned really well. Tungsten, of course, is one of the most sought-after uh, critical metals for, you know, defense purposes, but then also now within within high-tech and strategic, uh, uh, technology. I think it's it's definitely one of those metals that's, uh, got the multi-use platform and, uh, it's it's it's, uh, really going to be, uh, sought-after very very intensely. >> We were talking just before we started this interview. I was with, uh, a group from Washington that's dealing with the issue of traceability, uh, from the mine. And how they're trying to get this all ready, uh, and finalized on how they're actually going to deploy it. I mentioned to them that, uh, a critical minerals associate of ours had put 30 million into a traceability for cobalt a few years back and felt it had been quite unsuccessful. Do you have any idea how they're going to be able to do that? >> Yeah, I think they're going to be doing, uh, trying to leverage a lot from Project Vault. I know there's there's some agencies and some groups within there that have developed some kind of more advanced military type of blockchain style technology that they want to be able to apply to a lot of these different critical metals. Uh, but I don't think it's really gotten off the ground yet and I don't really think that there's, uh, um, you know, a lot of momentum behind it yet. So, I'm hopeful that this, uh, or I'm optimistic, rather, that this this executive order will kind of help move that forward and that's something that, uh, I think we we plan to be part of. >> And of course one of the primary catalyst is scalability. We've got to get this into production. We got to get the supply chains working. Um, you're in Nevada. You have tungsten, which is one of the hottest critical minerals out there. You're currently drilling. Let's get an update on how Spartan Metals is doing because uh the pressure's on. >> Yeah, it sure is. Uh but we like it that way. It's uh it helps helps keep us moving forward. I mean, you know, as you've seen over the last several weeks and a couple of months rather that we've actually put out a lot of very successful um press releases detailing our our uh surface exploration program leading up to this drilling program. Uh and so we've really selected uh some pretty high priority targets. We've gotten a very preliminary uh results back from the geophysics program that we've actually been running uh concurrently with our other field exploration that's really highlighted some significant targets at our Eagle project. And so that really uh gives us a lot of confidence that um when we put our drill holes in that we're really going to find something that uh is going to make everybody excited. Uh I'm I'm really excited to uh you know, start seeing the results myself. >> Well, I'm going to make you my unofficial political commentator on American exec our presidential executive orders moving forward. So Brett, thank you so much for your update today. And for everybody interested in finding out more about tungsten and Spartan Metals, please go to the following website. Thank you, Brett. >> Yeah, thanks, Tracy. Great to be here.